Young Birderdom blog

Yesterday I went banding (ringing) again! This time though the birds were vastly different to Greenfinches and Dunnock, they were Caspian Tern chicks! We banded them on a island in Waimea Inlet, it's name is Bell Island, If you look on the map it is a restricted access island with sewage ponds on it (great!!!). Everyone meet up in front of the golf course, then we drove along to the island. On a concrete bridge there were about say 14 VOCs (Variable Oystercatcher) and some Pied Stilt (Black-Winged Stilt), the VOC sure did not want to move but they were smart enough to get out of the way of the cars. Both species were also year listers, so I'm 45 species for 2016 now, the 45 bird was particularly exciting! I made a slide show out of the videos and photos from the day. I tried to put the people who are in it's names at the end, but I could not remember them all, very sorry.

Caspians are very large tern, the largest in the world! They are often mistaken for big gulls by inexperienced birders. Breeding adults have a bright red/orange bill and a black cap on their head. With around 1300-1400 breeding pairs in New Zealand they are classed as uncommon.

When banding the chicks you have two people, one to hold the bird and the other to band it. There are also two different bands, a stainless steel and a white plastic one. The plastic ones are much easier to read, they have one letter and two numbers, ex. E23, A40 etc like the Black-billed Gulls I count at the lake.
Many of the birds were mostly around the same age, but some were really small (and sweet!) and others were a fair bit older. One that I held would apparently be able to fly in around four days.

There was also a Black-backed gull nesting ground there too. It caused a little confusion for some over what the dark chicks were and whether or not to catch them.
I was really supprized that non of the adults of either species mobbed us, I would if I was them...

While everyone was busy banding, a new tern appeared. It was smaller than the Caspians, had a stubby black bill, and a different call. Any idea what it was? It was a Gull-billed tern! Certainly icing on the cake, a very interesting lifer for me, and at the beginning of the year.

That is all for now, wishing you a happy holidays and a BIRDY New Year ahead.